Reference is made to U.S. Document Disclosure Certificate Nos.: 449,115 recorded Dec. 22, 1998; 459911 recorded Jul. 30, 1999; 458876 recorded Jul. 5, 1999; 455008 recorded Apr. 19, 1999; and 455009 recorded Apr. 19, 1999; the entire contents of all such certificates incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of decorative jewelry items, and more particularly to: the basic structural link element of a jewelry closed-link chain exhibiting attractive, decorative, and ornamental visual properties; a chain of assembled ones of such link elements; and a method of manufacture of the link elements and of the assembled chains.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Jewelry chain link elements, a plurality of which when connected together form a chain, can be manufactured in a variety of ways, including the stamping of link elements from a sheet of appropriate material, most likely a precious metal. In most cases, the material or physical appearance of a link is uniform. In other words, the link may be made from silver, gold, platinum, white gold, brass, or other material. If manufactured of silver, it conventionally would be entirely silver and uniform in its silver appearance. Should the craftsman desire to add a different visual property to the link, it would be added after the manufacture of the link or the completed chain.
Closed-link chains are a popular type of jewelry item made from linking a number of, typically, annular link elements together in a repetitive manner in which each link element has an enclosed open area, and each link element has a linking portion passing through the enclosed open area of an adjacent link element. The result is a chain that is flexible and pleasing to the eye. The annular link elements are typically formed of gold, silver, or other precious metal and may be round in cross section or may be rectangular in cross section with flat major side surfaces, depending on the method of manufacture. The overall generally circular configuration of the annular link elements is completely closed, although there is provided a closed gap to permit the link elements to be twisted open, interlinked with another link element, and then twisted closed again. Preferably, the touching ends of the link element at the closed gap are soldered, sonic welded, or otherwise solidly connected to prevent inadvertent opening of a gap and loss of a link element or the chain itself.
The link elements may be assembled together to form a rather loose interlinked chain, or they may be sized and treated before, during, and/or after assembly, such that tightly interlinked link elements give the chain the appearance of a tire-tread-like pattern, yet the chain remains flexible but to a more limited extent.
A number of link elements may be interconnected in a twisted fashion and in a systematic and repetitive pattern of orientation, resulting in an eye-pleasing, flexible, and beautiful jewelry article that looks and feels like a flattened braided chain.
Some manufacturers of jewelry use different colored gold and silver elements to enhance the beauty of the jewelry article. An example is a closed-link chain in which sets or groups of link elements of one color alternate with sets or groups of link elements of another color, resulting in bracelets or necklaces exhibiting such different colors along their lengths, but with each individual link element being of a single color (and/or texture), assembled with other single colored (and/or textured) link elements. Gold, for example, is available in at least four colors; white, yellow, rose (pink), and green.
Thus, in typical prior art construction techniques for producing closed-link chain jewelry, each link element is of a single solid color, texture, shape, and pattern, e.g., each link element may be stamped from a solid thin sheet of precious metal, such as gold, in the form of an annular ring. While an all yellow gold closed-link chain or an all white gold closed-link chain is attractive, it is otherwise uninteresting due to the monotonic nature of its unvarying coloration, texture, and/or shape along the link elements of the chain. Those prior art closed-link chains that do exhibit variations of colors along their lengths nevertheless are constructed of individual link elements each of which is of a single solid color, texture, shape, and/or pattern.
The present invention provides the means and methods for constructing closed-link chain link elements in a way to produce a closed-link chain piece of jewelry in which each link element, or selected link elements, and therefore the closed-link chain itself, exhibits unique visual properties.
The present invention teaches the manufacture of a chain link element, whereby the visual property of an individual link element can be varied and determined during the manufacture process. This may be done by stamping the chain link element from a sheet of material and predisposing the desired visual property on or in the sheet of material prior to stamping. For example, a sheet of material may be fabricated with a first visual property and a second visual property. A chain link element is then stamped from the sheet of material forming a chain link element with a first visual property thereon and a second visual property thereon. The visual property may be due to different materials (e.g. gold v. silver), different coloration, different texture, different karat weights, or any other differences in physical or visual appearance. The chain link element thus produced can then be cut (if necessary) or otherwise connected to other chain link elements to form a chain.
A chain link element can be produced from a sheet of material having a variety of different visual properties. The predominant visual property of a chain link element can be varied by varying the visual properties of the sheet of material.
Preferably, the chain link element may be produced with a closed gap during stamping which would preclude the necessity of cutting the chain link element prior to connecting with other chain link elements.
By providing individual link elements with different visual properties, including different shapes, the ultimate appearance of the completed closed-link chain can be determined. For example, if each individual link element exhibits two colors, the resulting closed-link chain will exhibit those two colors in a pattern determined by the manufacturer""s designer. Since the link elements overlap, and since they are placed in pre-determined positions when they are interlinked, the location of the colors will have an influence on the appearance of the finished product.
Coloration is only one type of xe2x80x9cvisual propertyxe2x80x9d, and may vary according to the type or formulation of the material or materials from which a link element is made. Reflectivity, surface texture, pattern feature or characteristic, in addition to shape, are among other visual properties of a link that can influence the appearance of a finished closed-link chain. Such unique visual property traits for the succession of link elements results in a more attractive, fanciful, more delicate and interesting fashion jewelry item.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, the link elements may be formed by a stamping process whereby the desired visual effects on the link elements are preliminarily provided on or in the sheet of material from which the link elements are later stamped. Alternatively, especially when the visual property is surface texture or shape, the desired visual effects on the link elements may be created during or after the stamping process.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the link elements may be manufactured by bending a thin elongated wire of prescribed dimensions into the desired shape. The wire may be supplied on spools and formed by machine. For example, a Link-O-Matic(copyright) machine, such as the Model 534 available from Crafford Precision Products Co., One Industrial Court, Riverside, R.I. 02915, can feed, cut, and form a gapped, or non-gapped, link element each cycle of operation. The wire may be manufactured by merging and bonding together two or more thinner wires. Additionally, or alternatively, a wire may undergo a preliminary surface coloring and/or texturing process, such as blackening, oxidizing, plating, serrating, sandblasting, scoring, etc., prior to being cut and formed into a link element by the machine. Or, the machine can form the link element and a subsequent surface texturing and/or coloration process may be employed.
The sheet of material from which link elements are stamped may be fabricated from one or more species of the same substance (e.g., gold of different colors, or gold of different karat weights) or from a combination of substances (e.g., gold and silver). A first portion of the sheet may have a first visual property, and a second portion of the sheet may have a second visual property. Again, each individual region exhibiting a different visual property may be the result of coloration, reflectivity, surface texture, pattern feature or characteristic, shape, or other visual property attribute that provides one portion of the resulting link with a different appearance than another portion of the link.
Importantly, as will be described in detail hereinafter, in the stamping process, in addition to die-cutting the outline for the link element from the sheet of material provided, the die tools or devices may be fabricated to impress a surface texture or shape on one or both major surfaces or on any side edge surface of the link element being die-cut. That is, any surface or surface portion of the stamped link element may exhibit a desired surface texture or shape produced by an impression on, in, or to that surface by the tooling or device employed by the stamping process, effectively imprinting a desired shape, form, or finish.
Portions of a link element may also be shaped by the die-cutting action of the stamping machine.
As indicated, surface texturing may precede or follow the stamping process. However, simultaneous die-cutting and surface texturing is more efficient and is preferred.
After a link element is die-cut from the sheet of material, a subsequent pressure stamping process may be employed to impress designs or patterns on the major or on the side edges of the link element.
By interconnecting together a plurality of link elements made in accordance with the invention, a closed-link chain can be manufactured that exhibits visual properties in a distinctive and decorative pattern. Intermixing link elements exhibiting different visual properties in a particular sequence during assembly of the closed-link chain can likewise produce visually pleasing lengths of closed-link chain.
In the process of altering the physical shape of the individual link elements, simultaneously with the enhancement of the visual effect due to the texturing and/or shape altering techniques, small amounts of the precious metal making up the link elements are removed without reducing the effective dimensional characteristics of the elements and, therefore, without diminishing the structural integrity of the finished closed-link chain product.
Several examples of impressing lines (simulating scoring), serrations, depressions, and other patterns or designs are described in this specification. It should be appreciated that when impressions are made in a soft material, such as gold, during a pressure stamping process, there exists a physical displacement of the material previously occupying the depressed area. Thus, whatever material is pushed out of the depressed area moves to the adjacent regions, thereby making the thickness of the link element greater at such adjacent regions. This is significant, since a thinner sheet of material, at less cost, can be provided. For example, when creating a serrated major surface on a link element being pressure stamped, material pushed out of each groove of the serration pattern necessarily moves into the space between the grooves, increasing the actual maximum thickness of the sheet of material. Again, the combination of enhanced beauty and lower material cost is realized.
Although not intended to be limiting, variations of the present invention, shown and described herein, are distinguished by a changing or varying cross section for portions of the link elements while maintaining at least a portion of at least some of the link elements at a fixed cross section size. Thus, by constructing a chain with link elements having large and small cross sectional portions, a distinct and decorative closed-link chain of a given length may have the identical overall effective chain diameter as one made with all link elements of a constant large cross sectional area, and yet result in substantial manufacturing cost savings due to less material being used in the manufacture of each individual link element.
It can therefore be appreciated that fabricating link elements having variably changing visual properties and/or variably changing cross sections, to provide uniquely shaped building blocks for producing exciting and beautiful visual effects in the construction of closed-link chains, may simultaneously have the synergistic effect of making such physically altered link elements, and thus the closed-link chains from which they are made, less expensive.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, there is provided a link element, and a method of manufacturing such link element, of the type that is assembled with other link elements to form a closed-link chain in which each of the link elements has an enclosed open area therein through which a linking portion of an adjacent link element may pass. The method includes providing a sheet of material having a plurality of regions adjacent ones of which exhibit different visual properties, and stamping, with a stamping device, a link element from the sheet, forming at least one enclosed open area in the link element for receiving a linking portion of an adjacent link element in a subsequent assembly operation, the link element so produced comprising segments of at least two of the plurality of regions.
In another aspect of the invention, the method includes, during the stamping operation, forming a cut across a portion of the link element, the cut extending from an outside edge of the link element to one of the at least one enclosed open areas, the cut link element portion defining a linking portion adaptable to pass through an enclosed open area of an adjacent link element in a subsequent assembly operation.
In yet another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of manufacturing a link element of the type that are assembled to form a closed-link chain, the method comprising: providing a sheet of material having a plurality of regions, adjacent ones of which exhibit different visual properties; stamping, with a stamping device, an elongated strip, or slice, of the material, the strip having a prescribed length, width, thickness, and cross sectional configuration; and forming the strip into a closed-link chain link element having a generally O-shaped configuration, a first major surface, an opposite second major surface, an enclosed open area, and an exterior edge, the link element so produced comprising portions of the sheet of material that exhibit at least two of the visual properties.
Instead of, or in addition to, differently textured and/or colored major surfaces, the two major surfaces themselves may exhibit differently textured or colored portions, e.g., one portion of a major surface of a link element may be shiny and yellow gold in color, while another portion may have a sandblasted, frosted, patterned, matte, or simulated diamond cut finish appearance and white gold in color. Also, either major surface may be of a uniform shape and/or texture, while the other major surface is colored and/or textured as described.
A further variation has a portion of the link at a reduced annular width, which reduces material but nonetheless gives the appearance of a closed-link chain having an effective diameter the same as if the reduced portion was of normal annular width.
The interconnecting link elements may have differently colored, patterned, and/or textured portions, and may have different irregular or patterned shapes or shaped portions. For example, some or all of the link elements making up the closed-link chain may be partially or wholly smoothly circular with patterned major surfaces, circular with peripheral undulations, circular with peripheral gear-like teeth, circular with gouges or notches, may have constantly varying cross sectional portions, and/or may have an overall configuration that is star shaped, baguette shaped, square shaped, rectangular shaped, oval shaped, diamond shaped, D-shaped, heart shaped, etc. Similarly, different portions of each link element may have such different physical shapes.
A jewelry closed-link chain link element constructed in accordance with the invention preferably, but not necessarily, may have the shape and configuration of a standard annular link element with at least a portion removed and has a maximum link width equal to that of a similar standard annular link element without any portion removed.
As a result of the various combinations possible in the manufacture of jewelry closed-link chains in accordance with the present invention, a virtually limitless number of different design possibilities exist, and preferred ones of such possibilities are shown and described herein. It is to be understood, however, that all combinations of: the number of interconnected link elements in the repeated pattern along the closed-link chain; solid or portioned coloration and/or texturing; different designs of the portioned regions of each major surface and/or side peripheral edges of the link elements; and different physical shape and/or visual properties as identified in this description may be employed in the manufacture of jewelry closed-link chains and are contemplated variations of the preferred embodiments specifically shown and described.